Regrowth

Noel Football cradles a small, tightly-wrapped conifer cone in a gloved hand.

This little guy is going to help change the whole world, he says. 

Born and raised in Behchok, Football is one of a few Tch men helping sort cones on a grey day in late August, as part of a bold tree-planting project announced last year. 

The Tch government signed an agreement with Tree Canada and Lets Plant Trees a year ago to plant one million trees over the course of three years. Described as the most ambitious reforestation project ever undertaken in the N.W.T., the Tch government said its in response to unprecedented forest fires in 2023. 

Once the cones are harvested and sorted, the seeds are extracted and stored. The plan is for the seeds to be grown into saplings in nurseries in the south, before theyre brought back and planted in burn areas and as part of FireSmart strategies around Behchok.

Wildfire forced residents of the community to leave their homes last year. Burned land now surrounds the larger neighbourhood of Rae, the mark of a wildfire season that destroyed four homes in the community and later forced nearly three quarters of the territorys entire population to evacuate at the same time.

The Tch government says the tree planting project is an opportunity to fight against climate change. Its lands department director, Tammy Steinwand-Deschambeault, says it aims to restore ecosystems, create jobs and bring back boreal caribou habitat. 

At the sound of an approaching helicopter, Football rises from the tarp hes sitting on and backs away. The chopper is carrying a cone-shaped device suspended from a 150-foot-long cable, which is lowered to the ground.

As the contraption touches down, Alberta forester Eckehart Marenholtz steps in to release its cargo: branches from the tops of 25-metre-tall white spruce trees.

The tree-planting project has collected seeds from black spruce, tamarack, aspen and birch trees as well. But Marenholtz, who has been contracted by Lets Plant Trees to help co-ordinate the cone-harvesting phase of the project, describes white spruce as one of the most difficult to harvest from: the trees are tall, the cones are clustered near the top, and theres a narrow week-long period during which they can be picked.

Its also a tough job for the pilot.

Marenholtz uses a drone to help spot white spruce trees alongside Highway 3 south of Behchok and uses a radio to tell the chopper pilot where they are. Then, the pilot has to carefully lower the cone rake down over the very top of those trees.

The contraption has rubber fingers which rotate in opposite directions. Once those beaters are turned on, they toss cones and small branches off the tree and into a cage that surrounds the machine.

When the cage is full, the pilot heads back to the staging area to drop the load. 

Boreal caribou are a threatened species in the N.W.T., and the territorial government estimates the population is between 6,000 and 7,000 animals.

Steinwand-Deschambeault says one aspect of the project is planting species of trees that will draw them back to the Tch region. We need to consider whats their natural habitat and try to replenish that with whatever is natural for them, she says.

White spruce, says Eckehart, grows lichen that the caribou like to eat.

But jack pine, often the first type of tree to grow back after a wildfire, isnt good for caribou habitat. David Tonken, the president of Lets Plant Trees, says jack pine trees grow thick and dense, and dont foster the lichen and ground cover that are part of the animals diet. 

Allowed to grow, the jack pine would dominate the burn area for 50 or 60 years before birch trees would be able to grow past the canopy, he says. By planting more caribou-friendly species birch is another one of them Tonken says the project aims to skip that step of the forests ecological cycle.

We have about a five-year biological window to get in there before the jack pine do, he says.

Tonken says a draft plan proposes planting 250,000 trees in a burn area west of James Lake next year and another 500,000 trees in last years burn area around Behchok. In 2026, the plan is to plant the remaining 250,000 trees closer to Behchok as a firesmart strategy. 

We feel that this is something that we need to do to help our land to regrow, and for the animals to repopulate certain areas, and for our people to continue our traditional practices, says Steinwand-Deschambeault.

Football expects itll be decades before caribou return to the area, but nonetheless, he says hes pretty sure the tree planting effort is going to help. The cones which he described as a medicine for his people, now becoming a medicine for an animal his community relies on.

Steinwand-Deschambeault acknowledges the newly-planted trees could burn in fires too, and says the risk is worthwhile.

Because it gives us hope, because it gives us something to work towards. And if theres partners out there that are willing to help us why not?"

Tree Canada, a national non-profit, expects planting 1 million trees around Behchok over the coming years is going to cost $5 million. 

The organization says half of that is being covered by the federal government and its 2 Billion Trees program, while its looking for sponsorships to cover the rest. Randall Van Wagner, the head of Tree Canadas national greening program, said theyve raised about $300,000 so far. 

Steinwand-Deschambeault says for the project to be entirely funded by the federal government and sponsors is a big deal for which the Tch government is very grateful.

She sees it as part of reconciliation.

Language, culture, and way of life is our everything. So if theyre willing to contribute anything to help in those areas, thats a big plus and a big positive, she says. She adds the project is opening up opportunities for people to get out on the land, and will hopefully pave the way for hunting and harvesting, too.

Joe Mackenzie, a Tch elder who was consulted on the project, worries about drug and alcohol abuse in his community and sees a connection to the natural world as a solution. He hopes young people will take jobs created by the tree planting project, and will foster a relationship with the land like he has.

Football, meanwhile, says he was compelled to help with the project specifically because of its goal to build caribou habitat.

I like caribou. I grew up with caribou. Actually, we all did, he said. Its a food, its a lifeline. We used caribou hide for drums, clothing. Dont leave nothing behind.

Plucking a cone from a spruce bough and lifting it to eye level, he makes a confident claim:

It's gonna bring the caribou back.